The Governor’s Highway Safety Association has just released a report that outlines the different steps states have taken to combat distracted driving and thereby prevent auto accidents. The report will be of special interest to persons injured in auto accidents and their lawyers because Georgia has just passed a law that bans text messaging while driving for all motorists.

The report titledCurbing Distracted Driving: 2010 State Safety Programs details the activities and programs undertaken by various states to deal with the problem of distracted driving causing accidents. Georgia ranks very well in certain sections of the report. The state has included distracted driving as part of its Highway Safety Plan. However, Georgia does not collect data about distracted driving-related auto accidents. The National Safety Council estimates that approximately 28% of all accidents nationwide are linked to distracted driving.With statistics like this, it’s about time that Georgia also began collecting data about distracted-driving related auto accidents.

The report also contained the results of a survey conducted in 2008 by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia focusing on teen motorists. The survey found that only 28 % of teen motorists believed that talking on the cell phone while driving makes a difference to driving safety.A significant number of motorists in the survey, 57%, said that they had seen their friends talking on the phone while driving a car. However, only 19% had witnessed a friend texting while driving.

Not surprisingly, the study also found that parental behaviors had a lot to do with how teen motorists view distractions while driving. Teenagers were much more likely to be distracted at the wheel if they saw their parents frequently texting, talking on the phone or using GPS systems while driving.

Overall, the report has a pat on the back for states around the country, including Georgia that have managed to take strong legislative measures against distractions while driving. Georgia recently joined a long line of states that ban texting while driving, and now, 28 states and the District of Colombia have bans on texting at the wheel.